In July 2007, the Middleboro BOS interviewed potential candidates for Town Manager in public hearings. Some may recall that was when Selectman Spataro publicly embarrassed himself in his abusive comments to one candidate in particular, Peter Fohlin.
.In the course of the exchange, it became apparent that Mr. Fohlin had made a disparaging comment about the IT Director, Mr. Roger Brunelle, the husband of the Chairwoman of the BOS, Marsha Brunelle.
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Mrs. Brunelle subsequently abstained from voting, without explanation.
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Mrs. Brunelle was also charged with negotiating with Mr. Fohlin, which she did mostly via telephone.
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We will never know the truth about what transpired in those conversations, but we do know that the results of BOS action allowed qualified candidates to be lost in the process, yet another failure by the current Board.
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Mr. Fohlin said there needs to be a common understanding of the word “deficit”. He said just because everyone asks for more than we can afford does not necessarily constitute a deficit, but rather a “disappointment”. He said the first thing to do is to determine what the actual deficit is. He created a spreadsheet to address this. After a couple years, he was able to perfectly forecast the deficit and noted a perpetual half million dollar deficit. This would require an override every year. The fundamental way to cure it is to “tighten our belts and reign in our budgets”. He said he believes in revenue driven budgets, not expense driven. He said there are 2 choices: more revenue or less spending. He said he didn’t know the long history of Middleboro. At the end of a day, a realist can project State aid. Once you do this, you balance your budget, figuring what you can and can’t live without. He said he didn’t believe in “saving our way to success”. You can’t turn to employees and not give raises because that “can’t buy the groceries”. He said intelligent choices need to be made in balancing expenditures and revenue. It is not complicated. BOS
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A review of the Williamstown web site seems indicative of the professional environment in which Mr. Fohlin works. They even post the office hours!
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1 comment:
In truth, I never made a disparaging remark concerning Mr. Brunelle or anyone else. My Selectmen, co-workers, and employees in Williamstown, Tisbury, and Shirley will attest that such is not my style. Those of you who attended or watched my visit with the Middleborough Selectmen may have detected as much. During my Middleborough visit on June 26 I asked Mr. Brunelle four questions: What operating system do you use on your server? What OS do you use on your clients? How many clients do you have? How many employees are in your department, and what are their functions? No conversation ensued, and no disparaging remarks were made then or at any other time. I had no reason to. Something that I am not aware of and did not participate in happened between my June 26 visit and the July 16 selectmen's meeting that motivated Mr. Spataro to accuse me of "being ready to throw Mr. Brunelle under the bus." Williamstown will tell you that I do not throw people under the bus. In fact I have gone so far as to cut my own pay to fund other employee's raises in what I call "pulling up the bottom rung of the ladder." I offer one last bit of information in case you remain unconvinced: I was tipped by a town hall employee on the afternoon of June 26 that Mr. Brunelle was the husband of a selectman, which I had not paid attention to. Do I impress you as someone who would have made a disparaging remark under such circumstances, even if I had thought to?
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